From a business perspective, customers and clients are more likely to purchase products from or invest in the services of a sustainable company or one with a proven record of social responsibility. Recent studies have shown that around 80% of consumers are more inclined to support businesses that have a proven record of sustainability.
Encouraging sustainability within the workplace is something that needs to start from the bottom up and be integrated into all aspects of your business in order to work optimally. It’s important that, when it comes to sustainability, your employees believe in the methods proposed and that these are practised within the workplace. There are numerous different accessible and cost-effective ways in which your company can reduce its carbon footprint and become more sustainable. Let’s take a look at some ways in which you can promote sustainability within your workplace.
Follow A Recycling Programme
One easy way in which you can promote sustainability within your workplace is to implement a company-wide recycling programme. This is something which is fairly easy and low-cost to implement, however is likely to become widely adopted across your business.
From kitchen areas and breakout rooms to workspaces and meeting rooms, encourage responsible rubbish disposal throughout your business using clear signage and having designated waste stations so that people can differentiate between the different types of waste that need recycling. You could also look at the same recycling of things such as computer parts and other electronics which become old or unusable over time.
Some workplaces also have designated recycling champions, whose job it is to ensure that waste is being recycled correctly and encourage the adoption of further recycling methods.
Conserve Energy Within The Office
This might be trickier to do if you work within an older or outdated building, but an easy way to promote sustainability within the workplace is to try and conserve energy within your office or workspace. There are some simple things you can do to reduce this daily, such as turning off lights when a room isn’t in use or switching off electrical appliances around the offices during off-hours. These simple changes can make a huge difference in the day to day energy reductions in the workplace.
As mentioned, energy conservation may be more difficult in older buildings. With modern office fit outs, energy conservation is a big focus and something which is incorporated from a very early stage. If your business struggles with reducing energy consumption, it may be worth considering a redesign or speaking to a fit out company about a large scale commercial fit out.
Go Paperless
Paperless technology is becoming much more effective for businesses to implement within their strategy. Depending on your operations, it might be fairly easy for your business to take advantage of cloud-based programs and resources, such as Google Workspace, which allows employees to collaborate within the cloud, reducing the need for paper, or perhaps even eradicating it completely. Paper is accountable for 26% of total waste each year in landfills, so reducing the reliance on paper within your business can help reduce this dramatically.
